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Being a “whip” in Congress is a little bit arm-twister, a little bit mathematician.
But the N.C. lawmakers who serve on whip teams prefer to describe it this way – having a seat at the leadership table.
“Decisions are not unilaterally made by any one leader but rather by small groups,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, a Republican from Cherryville who is a deputy whip in the House. “I'm at a very small table plotting strategy for House Republicans. It's also a recognition of your strategic sense, your policy sense and new ideas.”
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said being on the Senate GOP whip team gives him an earlier opportunity to strategize about how the caucus should proceed with alternatives to the Democratic majority's agenda.
Burr has a group of senators he's in charge of polling about the way they intend to vote on key bills. And as chief deputy whip, he's also tasked with circling back to all lawmakers they “didn't get the right answer from.” He won't call it arm-twisting.
“I just make sure that people understand what the legislation does and understand the position the leadership has taken on it,” he said. “The whip team gives the leadership a snapshot of where people are on a given piece of legislation. The whip team is an additional conduit of information about what is in a piece of legislation.”
Burr said whip counts, or counting the number of lawmakers on one side or another of an issue, give the leadership an idea about the pace that legislation is moving, and “whether we are going to have to have a cloture vote to proceed or cut off debate.”
“We haven't really used that very much,” Burr said. “There hasn't been a need to. As long as Republicans are given the opportunity to offer amendments, there's probably no need to have procedural votes. If in fact they begin to cut off amendments or begin to limit the ability to vote, that means things will slow down significantly.”
McHenry says in addition to trying to influence legislation every day, he says the team also has long-term goals.
“This is a longer term comeback we are trying to make now,” McHenry says of Republicans, who lost seats in both houses of Congress as well as the White House last fall. “And so in many respects it's a marathon, an endurance competition.”
Rep. Mike McIntyre of Lumberton is one of the House Democratic whips. Rep. Heath Shuler of Waynesville is a whip on the “Blue Dog” team, a group of Democrats that call themselves fiscal conservatives.
Obama and the GOP
Not a single House Republican voted for the economic stimulus bill. What does the shutout portend for President Obama's ability to reach across party lines?
“I think Republicans took him in good faith and the American people took him in good faith and I don't think Democrats in Congress listened to a word he said,” Burr said. “I'll give the president the benefit of the doubt that he still intends to work on it. But it will require a tremendous amount of work on his part with the Democrats in Congress vs. the Republicans.”
Cancer outlook
It's been nearly nine years since Rep. Sue Myrick was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Speaking to radiation oncology officials gathered on Capitol Hill last week, the Charlotte Republican said she was pleased that treatments like radiation enable patients to approach cancer more optimistically.
In the past, when told you had cancer you thought, “‘Oh, I'm going to die. … This is a death sentence,'” said Myrick, co-chair of the House Cancer Caucus. “Now people look at cancer as, ‘This is something I'm going to live with.' It's such a different viewpoint and attitude and mental adjustment. It really gives a different outlook to it.”
Also on hand at the meeting was the radiation oncologist who treated Myrick when she had cancer, Dr. Robert Fraser, medical director of Carolinas Medical Center.
“We're ecstatic that Sue is interested in our issues and she's experienced and knows how critical these issues are for women in particular,” Fraser said.
Conflict of interests
Sen. Kay Hagan and Rep. Larry Kissell, N.C. Democrats, have shared a philosophical conflict over a piece of legislation: whether to raise the cigarette tax to pay for the Children's Health Insurance Program.
Kissell, from Biscoe in Montgomery County, last month proposed phasing in the cigarette tax over four years to pay for the Children's Health Insurance Program instead of an immediate hike of 61 cents increase per pack. No amendments were allowed, and Kissell ended up voting for it.
“It is important to know that the children that are going to be affected by this bill positively is great, but there are also families that are going to be negatively impacted at a time when we should not be doing that,” Kissell said Jan. 14.
Hagan supported an effort to cut the proposed increase by 24 cents when the Senate was debating the same program expansion last week.
“I have outlined my complete support for this vital program but also my dismay in the way in which it is funded,” she said Wednesday.
“Less than a month into my service here in the Senate, I am faced with a situation in which the health of millions of my state's children is at odds with a key industry in North Carolina.”
Top, bottom of wealth scales
Hagan and Kissell have more than a few things in common – they're both Democrats, both from North Carolina, both freshmen in Congress.
But they're tilting the opposite scales when it comes to personal financial wealth.
A new analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics shows that Hagan is the seventh-richest freshman in Congress. Kissell is dead last, or 53rd, among the congressional newcomers.
Hagan's net worth is between $4.3 million and $38 million, which puts her average net worth as 33rd among all members of Congress. A former banker, Hagan earned $20,000 in 2007 as a member of the state Senate.
Kissell's combined personal finances fall somewhere between $20,000 and debt of $284,000, according to the reports lawmakers have to fill out which require assets and debts to be reported in wide ranges instead of specific amounts. The former Montgomery County schoolteacher earned $49,000 in 2007.
The richest freshman was Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who built his fortune (between $61 million and $451 million) in the telecommunications business.
